Medway students learn where STEM studies can take them

MEDWAY - How will a crew of astronauts stay healthy on its mission to Mars? How will the group be kept safe? Where will its shuttle land?

Kara Latorella’s job is to find answers to some pretty big questions.

“We have looked at Mars for a very long time,” Latorella, a NASA human factors engineer told Medway High School students Friday morning. “We’ve designed a lot of technology to put stuff there. Now we need to go.”

Latorella, the keynote speaker during the school’s Women in STEM (science, technology engineering and math) Conference, detailed the finer points of the government administration's marching orders to put humans on Mars in 2030, offering one - and exciting - way a STEM career could serve students.

And certainly after Friday’s school-wide event, they should have a pretty good gauge of their options, considering 30-plus elective workshops were offered to them, ranging in topics from pharmaceuticals and 3D printing to even how creativity could be taught to alleviate major issues facing this planet, such as poverty.

As its title suggests, the second-annual conference aimed to inspire young female students to pursue more STEM-based classes and possible careers, according to Meg Downing, a junior-year student involved in the Women in STEM club that organized the event.

“We’re also trying to show our students you can study STEM and not go into STEM,” said fellow club member and senior student Lindsay Roland. “STEM is involved in everything.”

“It’s the future of a lot of jobs and careers,” Downing added.

Part of that not-so-distant future is indeed that expected trip to Mars - and the countless factors engineers like Latorella are intensely analyzing in the present day.

Data on how the mission will be done spans nearly NASA’s entire existence, dating back to 1965, according to Latorella.

It could take a year for four astronauts - who will not have a way to come back - to reach the planet, even if it’s one of Earth’s closest neighbors. Once there, the crew’s mission could possibly last 1,100 days, or a little over three years, she said.

The goal is also to establish a colony on the red planet, thus requiring Latorella, a 25-year NASA employee at the Langley Research Center in Virginia, to study the ergonomics of creating living structures, administering medicine, growing food and the physical and psychological effects of it all on human beings.

It’s hard work but Latorella, telling students that studying STEM is an investment that pays off, said it’s hard for everyone.

“There’s people that have been in this career for 20, 30, 40 years that still stretch their head over stuff,” said Latorella, a self-designated and proud “NASA nerd.”

"That shouldn't stop you," she advised them.

With the number of careers based in STEM increasing, the national economy depends on STEM innovation, she said.

Coupled with NASA’s open calls for ideas on inquiries like where should the Mars crew first land, there are opportunities to get involved right now, she told students, adding that the administration received a landing proposal from a 15 year-old.

“I hope you come and play with us at NASA, because we need you,” Latorella said.

Christopher Gavin can be reached at 508 634-7582 or cgavin@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @c_gavinMDN